Outside of the hardcore code required for doing stuff in OpenGL there is more that can be done in the general realm of graphics for us programmer types to do. H

Outside of the hardcore code required for doing stuff in OpenGL there is more that can be done in the general realm of graphics for us programmer types to do. However I find few takers in the programming community once some artistic ability is needed. My advice for people is to not fear art and design but to go there with maths and coding skills. In doing so there are rich rewards and your coding competency has to be so so, not amazing. A lot of images need preparation and classification, there is a whole world of fun algorithms for that. If you can handle raw images in code then you can get that automated. This opens up a whole new world of possibilities that would be tedious to do in Photoshop style tools. Again with SVG in code editors you can write code that makes images in a way that is not so easy with Illustrator. Because you are not constrained to the same possibilities as the classically trained art guy you can see ways of achieving results that are creative solutions as seen by the rest of the team. Code therefore can make you apparently creative. Along the way you can work with the best creative talent with you becoming an asset rather than a cost on the company ledger. Given the narrow definition of graphics programming I would urge others to have a go at 3D in the real world. For instance, 3D for TV might not be what it was but it is relatively easy to be the 3D guy for a client base of a few really good producers, to have great fun doing 3D graphics. Entry into that world is considered hard but isn't if you do have the technical chops. In this scenario you are gold dust, not one of many but if you go reasonable on the salary request the job is yours. At the bottom of the 3D food chain are morally dubious things like fracking, the opportunity for someone interested in real world application of cool graphics is a good one with a low bar. There are many other industries where being able to step out the safe world of tech to embrace a non scientific discipline is the way ahead in graphics, to cut your own career.